Upon death the wearer will retain any souls and humanity that they were carrying with them (as well as retaining unhollowed form), but the ring itself will shatter. Dying with a Ring of Sacrifice equipped will show the message "Ring Revival" after the usual "You Died" message and will not result in the player leaving a bloodstain. Should a player with an uncollected bloodstain die while having a Ring of Sacrifice equipped, their bloodstain will not be lost.

The only death that this ring cannot nullify is from Curse. Equipping this ring while dying from Curse will count as a normal death. The ring, however, will not break in this process. An upgraded version of this ring called the Rare Ring of Sacrifice, can save you from Curse, as well as curing the status.

The Ring of Sacrifice acts as an extra life, of sorts. It can be useful to the player if they are taking on a tough enemy for the first time or if there is a high risk that the player may die before they are able to retrieve a very valuable bloodstain. Because the player will not leave a bloodstain upon death with this ring, it can make traversing a difficult area less risky.

This is one of the first rings available to the player in the game. While traversing from Firelink Shrine to the Undead Burg, a corpse with loot is clearly visible from the base of the bridge. To get to this corpse, either climb the stairs leading into the sewer tunnel and carefully drop off onto the grassy ledge, or line up a roll and jump over the small gap between the ledge with the staircase and the landmass supporting the bridge. From there, move forward being careful not to fall off until you get to the corpse on the other end. Learning how to reach this area will be beneficial later in the game, as it is also where Domhnall of Zena appears.